The UC Davis Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated cancer center in the Central Valley of California, is the advanced cancer care provider for a population of five million, the only significance point of access to early phase cancer clinical trials in its Northern California region, and together with its collaborator, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [LLNL], the region's principal cancer research organization. Since its founding thirteen years ago, the UC Davis Cancer Center has provided increasingly progressive leadership to, organization of, and support for cancer investigation. In the first sections, we recapitulate briefly the milestones leading up to NCI designation (July 1, 2002). In subsequent sections, we focus on decisions, achievements, and directions characterizing the center's first two years of its Cancer Center Support Grant [CCSG]. In concluding sections, we focus on program and organizational accomplishments, future direction, and geography.